Pushkar death: Court raps police for not unsealing hotel room

New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) A court here on Tuesday asked the police why, despite the court’s order, it has not unsealed a room in Hotel Leela Palace where former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in 2014.

Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh asked a senior police officer to appear before it and explain why its order to unseal room number 345 that has remained locked since January 17, 2014, has not been followed.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 6.

Delhi Police sought more time to keep the room locked, arguing that a forensic report on samples collected from the spot was still awaited.

The court said the room was had been locked for over three years which caused huge financial loss to the hotel.

On July 21 this year, the court ordered its unsealing, saying the hotel cannot be made to suffer merely because the investigating team cannot ascertain the cause of Pushkar’s death. On September 12, the court again ordered to unseal the room.

The hotel’s management told the court that as the room had been lying locked for a long time, termites, bugs and other pests had spoilt it and even the adjoining area.

It said investigators would be allowed to take whatever they wanted as evidence from the room, pointing out that no investigating agency official had visited it for the past one year.